Pittsburgh Pirates: Chase DeJong Off Cut, Canaan Smith-Njigba Back

The Pittsburgh Pirates have finally parted ways with reliever Chase De Jong. Well, at least at the Major League level. Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that the team had designated DeJong for assignment. This means he is off the 40-man roster, putting him on waivers. He passed through unclaimed earlier this year. With even worse numbers upon his return, it does not seem likely that he will be claimed.

The decision to release Chase De Jong came after a period of inconsistency and underperformance. De Jong, who joined the Pirates in 2021, struggled to find his footing on the mound. Despite flashes of potential in 2022, his overall performance in 2023 has been horrible. On the year De Jong has an earned run average of 13.50 in 11.1 innings of work. The fact that he has pitched in 6 games is just very typical of how the Pittsburgh Pirates operate. He got hit hard especially against a poor Oakland Athletics team, giving up 6 runs in just 2 innings.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, have made roster changes by parting ways with pitcher Chase DeJong and promoting Canaan Smith-Njigba.

Stepping into the vacant spot on the roster is Canaan Smith-Njigba, an outfielder with tremendous promise. Smith-Njigba, broke camp with the Pirates, but the outfield prospect was demoted to Triple- a few weeks into the season. He had just 33 at-bats and only hit .125 through that small sample. Many potential at-bats were taken away early in the year due to Ji-Man Choi's presence.

Since his demotion, things have gone a little better, albeit not sensational. In 28 games at the Triple-A level, Smith-Njigba is batting .245/.339/.547 with 7 home runs. The issue however is that he has struck out way too much especially at Triple-A, striking out 30% of the the time. Still, his overall slash line is respectable and he gives them another left-handed